Kat Richardson

A brief, okay, collection of relatively fast paced urban fantasy stories featuring four authors long running magical detective protagonists. I'm a little unsure what the goal of the collection was. While some of these novellas serve as reasonably good introductions to the worlds and characters that are otherwise centered in long running series, others are perhaps not the best pick if that was the goal. And I'm reasonably sure they're all available in other collections elsewhere.
Jim Butcher's Dresden novella isn't a bad one, in fact I quite enjoyed it when I read it in one of the two collections of short fiction specifically for Dresden stories. However, it seems like a weak choice for this collection. Its plopped right in the middle of ongoing events in the Dresden series and requires a lot of pre-existing knowledge of long-running characters and relationships to carry much weight.
Interesting, while I'm not a fan of Simon Green's Nightside series, I think the novella here works really well as a stand alone. I wonder if I'd feel the same way in general, that maybe that world works better for me in short form than long? The short form does solve some of the issues of repetitiveness that the full novels suffer from. Just be aware that mileage may vary between this as an introduction to that series, and the series itself, in terms of quality.
I had not read any of Kat Richardson's Greywalker books, but "Little Clay Dog" was a fun and touching introduction to that world that leaves me curious about. Which I would assume is the point.
I'm a little ambivalent about the final story by Sniegoski, both in quality and how well it serves to introduce and entice the reader into a new world they may want to explore.
Overall, I'd say skip this unless you find it cheap, you're a fan of these series already, and are a bit of a completionist. I think there are probably better collections that can serve as exposure if you're curious about these series, or for that matter you could pick up the first book of each, used, for cheap enough to go that route instead.… (more)

I felt like Vanished was weaker than the previous novel. It almost could have made two books in one, as the first 100 pages or so is very much concerned with her past and her relationships to each of her parents. It also delves into the mystery of why she is a Greywalker, but comes up with more questions than answers. Just when I thought I was understanding the world of the grey, Richardson confused me again. She has a ghost riding an airplane, which feels wrong to me. On the land, ghosts are tied to locations irrespective of buildings being torn down, so being connected to an airplane route just didn't fit as well to me.

The second part of the book moves to London, and this is where it starts to pick up on Richardson's familiar fondness for history, and then departs on a bloodier and more action-oriented route. Before long, Harper makes a stop at a vampire's abode, and gets into a fight with a creature living there. Now our former Harper limped through the last book due to trauma inflicted on her knee during a fight. This time, she is suddenly able to move through the Grey at fast pace, as compared with her inching and slogging through in previous books, and uses it in a fight to backflip over her enemy. It felt like too much "cheating" to me, after following her through three books, describing how hard it was to move through planes of the grey. And a flip is still a flip. Yes, Richardson has been describing her as athletic, but points out how much of it came through dance. A flip doesn't seem a natural maneuver for any training background we've had to date.

I admit I was also turned off by the degree to which the story became more and more bloody. Torture and blood rites became involved, along with bloodthirsty ghosts who, again, suddenly became able to inflict damage. The end ties up the case that sent her to London, but opens more questions as to what is happening at home, and launches a new (sort of) conflict for the next book. I found it only moderately satisfying.… (more)

Real rating 3.5 stars. Kat Richardson is hitting her stride as a writer, and I found I enjoyed this book more than her last book. Harper is a PI hired to find someone "undermining" a scientific experiment on creating a ghost. The psychologist hiring her doesn't know that Harper can actually see into the world of the paranormal. There's an interesting cast of side characters, from the college professor and witch who help her with her skills, to her mysterious friend Quinton to Phoebe, bookstore owner. The mystery underneath drives the story and kept me guessing. Although I enjoy urban fantasy, the ghost/paranormal is not my favorite area of interest, but I just skimmed some of the longer explanations of the paranormal world. The resolution was satisfying without being expected or entirely satisfactory for the heroine. Although Harper is new to the paranormal, she is trying to learn and understand more of how it works. I'll be looking for the next installment.… (more)